a study on awareness and implementation of csr in a multinational companies operating in vietnam

i A STUDY ON AWARENESS AND IMPLEMENTATION OF CSR IN A MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES OPERATING IN VIETNAM BY DINH THI HUYEN TRANG Graduation Project Submitted to the Department of Business Studies, HELP University College, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Business (Accounting) Hons ii April 2011 Declaration of Originality and Word Count DECLARATION I declare that this graduation project is based on my original work except for quotations and citation which have been duly acknowledged. I also declare that it has not been previously or concurrently submitted for any other courses/degrees at HELP University College or other institutions. Word Count: 16,970 words. DINH THI HUYEN TRANG Date 28/03/2011 iii Acknowledgements As a student, our main responsibility is to absorb and learn as much as we can from the assistance, support and encouragement of many people such as our mentors and teachers around us. They help us to learn, to apply our knowledge and to grow. In addition, this project would not have been made without them. I want to thank to thank all the people who have guided me in the right direction and kept me motivated during the time of completing the dissertation.  First, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Le Van Lien from International School at Vietnam National University, Hanoi who guide me in my choice of assignment. His guidance throughout and inspiration for me to create new ideas has helped me to learn and grow personally.  I also would like to express my thank to Ms. Sumathi and Ms. Shenba at Help University College, who initiated the project and give so much instruction and support. iv Abstract A STUDY ON AWARENESS AND IMPLEMENTATION OF CSR IN A MULTINATIONAL COMPANY OPERATING IN VIETNAM BY DINH THI HUYEN TRANG April 2011 Supervisor: Dr. Le Van Lien As we know that CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is no longer a familiar term for the developing countries in the world. CSR has had a long history and developed more and more all over the world. Nowadays, many business entities want to implement CSR in their business operation. Although CSR has became a new trend in the world but it is a new term with Vietnamese and many business entities. The knowledge of CRS in Vietnam is limited because there are not many researchers on the CSR field. Many recent years, taking part in many organizations and political economy in the world WTO, ASEAN has attracted many investors and business organizations to operate in Vietnam that CSR is familiar with them. Their awareness can be consider is full but some multinational companies operating in Vietnam took advantages of unknown of Vietnamese to not implement CSR such as polluting environment. The economy is so open that there are many critical case and scandals concerning about CSR such as case of Vedan Company, Thanh Cong Company, Sabeco Song Lam Company and Tung Khuang Company. It can be consider as the result of the economic boom. This means that CSR has become a hot title for the researchers to conduct the survey about CSR. v The objective of the research is to access the understanding the completed concept of corporate social responsibilities and other relevant components under this area. Besides, the objective understands awareness and implementation, CSR reporting of CSR in a multinational company operating in Vietnam by asking respondents' understanding and opinion. From conducting the research, it is able to show the understanding and awareness about CSR concept of multinational companies operating in Vietnam is unlimited but their implementation is limited. These multinational companies have to find hard to use CSR as a tool to value firm, implement CSR in Vietnam as much as they can, and especially have to follow Vietnam regulation and law to protect the environment and community to be better. vi TABLE OF CONTENT Declaration of Originality and Word Count ii Acknowledgements iii Abstract iv TABLE OF CONTENT vi List of Figures and Tables x List of Abbreviations xi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 CSR in the world 2 1.2 CSR in Vietnam 3 1.2.1 Government actions 3 1.2.2 CSR practices and challenges 4 1.3 CSR in multinational companies operating in Vietnam 4 1.4 Reasons for further investigation 5 1.5 Problem statement 5 1.6 Objectives and Sphere of research 7 1.6.1 Objectives of research 7 1.6.2 Sphere of research 7 1.7 Research Methods 8 1.8 Structure of research 8 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 9 2.1 CSR definition 10 2.2 Research related concepts 10 vii 2.2.1 CSR and Business ethics 10 2.2.2 CSR and Socially responsible investing 11 2.2.3 CSR and Sustainability investing 11 2.2.4 CSR reporting 12 2.3 Researches and Studies 12 2.3.1 Carroll's 1979-1991 conceptualization 13 2.3.2 Wood 1991 conceptualization 16 2.4 Hypothesis 18 2.4.1 Management's attitude toward CSR 18 2.4.2 Consumers' attitude toward CSR 19 2.4.2 Workers' attitude to CSR 19 CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 22 3.1 Research objectives 23 3.2 Research methodology 23 3.3 Data source 23 3.3.1 Primary data 23 3.3.2 Secondary data 24 3.4 Research method 24 3.5 Research tool 25 3.5.1 Questionnaire 25 3.5.2. Annual report 25 3.6 Data collection 26 3.7 Sampling 26 viii 3.7.1 Sample population 26 3.7.2 Sample frame 26 3.7.3 Sample size 27 3.7.4 Sample techniques 27 3.8 Limitations 27 CHAPTER IV: FINDING AND ANALYSIS 29 4.1 Responds summary 30 4.2 Management 31 4.2.1 Finding from questionnaire survey and interview 31 4.2.1.1 Management's attitude toward CSR 31 4.2.1.2 Implementation of CSR 34 4.2.2 Actual disclosure by Dutch Lady 40 4.2.3 Overall evaluation of management's responses 41 4.3 Consumers 41 4.3.1 Finding from questionnaire survey 41 4.3.1.1 Consumers' attitude toward CSR 41 4.3.1.2 Consumers' stated support for social responsible businesses 44 4.3.2 Overall evaluation of consumer's responses 47 4.4 Employees 50 4.4.1 Finding from questionnaire survey 50 4.4.1.1 Employees' attitude toward CSR 50 4.4.1.2 Employees' stated support for social responsible businesses 52 4.4.2 Overall evaluation of employees' responses 54 ix 4.5 Discussion 55 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 58 5.1 Conclusion 59 5.2 Recommendation 61 5.3 Limitation of study 62 5. 4 Suggestion for the future research 62 REFERENCES 64 APPENDICES 72 Appendix A: Questionnaire sample 72 x List of Figures and Tables Figure 2.3a: A hierarchy of CSR (adapted from Carroll, 1991) 15 Figure 2.3b: The Wood's CPS Model (adapted from Wood, 1991) 17 Table 1: The important factors for employees (Ewin.com survey)………………….21 Table 2: Respondents 30 Table 3: Consumer category 31 Table 4: Employee of category 31 Table 5: Distribution responses of management's attitude toward CSR……………32 Figure 4.2: Distribution of response of management's attitude toward of CSR 34 Table 6: Question 1 - Result and analysis consumer's attitude toward CSR 42 Table 7: Question 2 - Result and analysis consumer's attitude toward CSR 42 Table 8: Question 3 - Result and analysis consumer's attitude toward CSR 43 Table 9: Question 4 - Result and analysis consumer's attitude toward CSR 44 Table 10: Question 5 - Result consumers' stated support for social responsibility 45 Table 11: Question 6 - Result consumers' stated support for social responsibility 45 Table 12: Question 7 - Result consumers' stated support for social responsibility 46 Table 13: Question 8 - Result consumers' stated support for social responsibility 46 Figure 4.3a: Distribution of response of consumers' attitude toward of CSR 48 Figure 4.3b: Distribution of response of consumers' stated support for social responsibility 48 Table 14: Distribution of responses from employees' survey………………… … 50 Figure 4.4: Distribution of response from employees survey 52 [...]... economy, it has attracted many multinational companies to operate in Vietnam such as Dutch Lady, Honda, Vedan Although they are multinational companies but their adoption and implementation of CSR have not paid attention and concern Some mercenary businesses, which did not have sense of social responsibilities, have caused many damages and disasters for environment and social 4 The last lesson was...List of Abbreviations CSR Corporate Social Responsibility WTO World Trade Organizations ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations IMF International Monetary Fund APEC Asia - Pacific Economic Cooperation ASEM Asia - Europe Meeting VCCI Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Vietnam OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Administration WBCSD World Business Council for Sustainable Development SRI Socially... of CSR in multinational companies operating in Vietnam From the Literature Review in chapter II, we can see that the awareness and implementation is very important all over the world This research is designed to explore how multinational companies operating in Vietnam have awareness and implementation about CSR It will show a view of society, community, consumers, management, investors about the CSR. .. research also aimed to discover the level of multinational companies operating in Vietnam s awareness and implementation about CSR In addition, the research is done to collect the opinion such as from managers, consumers, and workers about implementation CSR of this multinational company- Dutch Lady Vietnam 3.2 Research methodology This study includes qualitative method The qualitative method research... supports from consumers and society in the common interests that bring businesses to the community 1.4 Reasons for further investigation Vietnam is among the world's fastest-growing economy so that CSR become even more important to develop sustainably All companies include Vietnam companies or multinational companies operating in Vietnam have awareness and implementations about CSR 1.5 Problem statement With... multinational companies operating in Vietnam have a fully basic understanding about CSR, but they did not implement CSR in Vietnam well It means that manager is an important person to give the right decision to build the reputation for the organization According to Lacy and Salazar, one survey showed that among corporate managers, there are only ten percent of all companies integrate CSR in their core operation... labor, Vietnam government also gave Labor law Although there are many new regulations to solve social problems but Vietnam government does not require companies operating in Vietnam formally issue CSR reporting Thus, all multinational companies operating in Vietnam have to follow the law and regulations in Vietnam 1.2.2 CSR practices and challenges With acknowledging the important of CSR from many successful... have had occupational diseases In general, Viet Nam is one of countries, which the health and safety in the working environment are not good and need to be improved better 1.6 Objectives and Sphere of research 1.6.1 Objectives of research - Summarize the CSR concepts and its definitions - Inspect the awareness of multinational companies operating in Vietnam about CSR concepts, its importance and implementation. .. implementation - Recommend some solutions for multinational companies operating in Vietnam to raise the awareness and have better CSR implementation 1.6.2 - Sphere of research Research conducting place: Dutch Lady Vietnam, Binh Duong Province, Vietnam From Foremost to Dutch Lady, the name of the operating company Dutch Lady Vietnam (DLV) has a rich history of significant milestones The dream to build a healthy... " Sustainable development and protecting environment", Vietnam government always expect that businesses operating in Vietnam not only make profits but also protect the environment and care for the society's welfare Many multinational operating in Vietnam try their best to implement CSR in their business 5 However, there are many wrongdoing things related to CSR which made by multinational companies . implement CSR. 1.3 CSR in multinational companies operating in Vietnam With the growing of Vietnam economy, it has attracted many multinational companies. iv Abstract A STUDY ON AWARENESS AND IMPLEMENTATION OF CSR IN A MULTINATIONAL COMPANY OPERATING IN VIETNAM BY DINH THI HUYEN TRANG April 2011 Supervisor: